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Whistleblower's former trust has too few nurses to 'meet patient needs'

A Care Quality Commission inspection has found “not enough staff to meet patients’ needs” at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust.

The regulator said there were 189 vacancies across the trust’s hospital sites, which include Pilgrim Hospital, Lincoln County Hospital and Grantham Hospital.

The report emerged as the trust faces an investigation over its high mortality rates by NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh and also found itself at the centre of media attention last week when its former chief executive Gary Walker broke a “gagging order”.

CQC inspectors visited 10 wards at the Lincoln County Hospital on 31 October and 1 November. While the CQC found the hospital was compliant with most standards and gave the trust an overall positive report, it raised specific concerns on staffing.

The report said: “There were times when there were not enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to meet patients’ needs.”

One patient told inspectors some people had waited half an hour for a call bell to be answered, while a doctor told the CQC there were times when “the nurses struggle”.

Nurses also expressed staffing problems themselves and said there had been occasions when admissions had been postponed due to a lack of beds or specialist nurses. One worker said morale was low, adding: “Everyone is tired because they are trying to do their best.”

The trust had apparently already identified a workforce problem. The CQC report notes the launch of a staffing-level review across in-patient wards by the trust’s director of nursing Eiri Jones. A directive has also been issued by senior managers regarding minimum acceptable staffing levels in advance of the findings of the review.

However, the CQC report marks a significant improvement for the trust, which had three highly critical visits by inspectors in 2012.

Ms Jones said: “This reflects the hard work of all our staff on every ward and department across the trust on a daily basis. We do recognise there is still more to be done in some areas and work is on-going to address issues where they are raised.”

well, credit has to be given to the CQC for their astute skills of observation, for which no doubt they are handsomely paid!

Would it not be possible to eliminate some of this time consuming and costly report writing and use these precious resources to get more people onto the front line instead? It seems everybody is now well aware of all the facts which seem to be reported over and over again.

what a surprise, not enough nurses to do their jobs properly, the CQC need to understand this is happening all over the country. Nurses have been saying for years there are not enough staff with the right skills but no-one was interested in listening to our concerns before the Francis Report.

'The report said: “There were times when there were not enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to meet patients’ needs.”

One patient told inspectors some people had waited half an hour for a call bell to be answered, while a doctor told the CQC there were times when “the nurses struggle”.'

This recognition of inadequate staffing numbers, it appears (?), does not stem from some sort of 'assessment tool', but from simple relevant feedback from patients (nobody comes when I use my call bell) and doctors (the nurses are struggling at times).

It is called VALUING REAL-TIME FEEDBACK - but the NHS seems to do everything possible, to DEVALUE actual real-time, on-the-ground observational feedback !

"well, credit has to be given to the CQC for their astute skills of observation, for which no doubt they are handsomely paid!

Would it not be possible to eliminate some of this time consuming and costly report writing and use these precious resources to get more people onto the front line instead? It seems everybody is now well aware of all the facts which seem to be reported over and over again. "

Exactly... why are they not listening to US in the first fugging place?

We have been telling these little nobodies this for frikking decades.... Why does nobody take Nurses seriously?

I hope this helps Gary Walker, the former CEO who left under a gagging order but has now post Francis, challenged it. It's starting a wave of them, senior people forced to resign coming back to put pressure on the DH. Ruth Carnall's written to all the CEOs in London re PID. The wagons are circling.

When nobody listens, no wonder why people give up complaining. Do you think anyone is going to complain when jobs are at risk?
Nothing gets done until patients, relatives or doctors complain. If it threatens the senior hierarchy, the crap just rolls downwards and stating negligent care by junior doctors and nurses, how could they leave the bell ringing for ages.
We're told to prioritise our work, as if we didn't already, but we're left with a mountain of "must do's" and the "would be nice to do" pile grows, its no wonder why patients don't feel cared for and that nobody has time to listen.
Then if the documentations for care planning, implementation and evaluations aren't completed, then care is not complete. Getting documentations written up contemporaneously is important as we can deliver proactive patient care and speed up their rehabilitation and reduces litigation. Otherwise we're just firefighting, waiting for doctors' assessments and unnecessarily prolonging patients' stay.
When there's not enough nurses left... see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsjNXWIW28w
or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLRDpQ3x7KQ

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